For her last Cat Power album of all original songs, 2006’s The Greatest, Chan Marshall recruited the great Memphis Rhythm Band, which included the likes of Mabon “Teenie” Hodges, Leroy “Flick” Hodges, and veteran Stax house band drummer Steve Potts, to back her vocals. A tough act to follow, indeed. So whom has “The Greatest” singer enlisted for her latest? Marshall spoke to Rolling Stone at Matador’s 21st birthday bash over the weekend in Vegas:
I’m working on a new album and I’m trying to play all the instruments myself… I think I was inspired by being disappointed in myself that I’d just been holding the microphone and I was disappointed in myself that I hadn’t been playing an instrument. And I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could try to create a relationship with it again—or something—and feel like I felt close to it. ‘Cause it is definitely there and it’s a need and it just hasn’t been around.
(Get psyched: New Cat Power, Wilco, Fiona Apple, PJ Harvey, and Radiohead albums are on the way.)
Back in December, she told the Courier Mail (via Largehearted Boy):
I’m at a point where my heart tells me, “Chan, you haven’t played piano or guitar for four or five years,” and I do have guilt about that. People ask me, “When are you going to play by yourself?”
Apparently, the guilt trip worked.